


Choices

by Jen425



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Power Rangers in Space, Star Wars - All Media Types, Tokusatsu
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Fusion, Basically a 1k excuse to say “Darth Astronema”, F/F, Gen, Naboo - Freeform, Sith Order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-15 22:57:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21026132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Darth Astronema doesn’t join the True Sith on the day of the Schism.But she gets there soon enough.





	Choices

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rivulet027](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivulet027/gifts).

> Well, this was fun. This takes place in my Canon, which basically wrote its own completely original take on the origin of Bane’s Line. Vengé is a part of that, but everything else should be pretty intuitive.
> 
> Karone - Darth Astronema  
Cassie - Darth Casriara  
Carlos - Darth Volune  
Psycho Pink - Darth Roosea  
Psycho Yellow - Darth Amara  
Leo - Darth Ariil

Master Darth Astronema, second Sith Master of her generation, after Darth Vengé, doesn’t go with the True Sith on the day of the Great Schism.

That doesn’t mean that she doesn’t want to, but she doesn’t join the True Sith.

(Cazriara does, and Volune, and Ariil. And Astronema yearns to follow.)

Attachment, of course, is key to the Sith. You can gain no greater passion than through someone you care for. At least, it used to be. It  _ still _ is, to any True Sith.

But it’s why Astronema can’t join them.

“I have a duty to follow,” Ecliptor says, for the hundredth time. Astronema growls at her former Master.

“ _ Kriff _ duty,” she says. “Blast it to the depths of the Light if that’s what it takes; Bane will destroy the Sith!”

Ecliptor sighs.

“I know that,” he says. “But I’m not the type to rebel; you should take Rosea and go. You know there are people waiting for you.”

They’ve had this argument a hundred times. They could have it a hundred more.

(There is a world where Masters Darth Astronema and Darth Ecliptor are both casualties in the Jedi’s raid of the Sith’s High Temple.)

But, for some reason… Astronema let’s her Master sway her.

(In the end, she’s glad. After all, what would Rosea have gotten up to if she and her friends had tried to run off and defect on their  _ own _ ?)

  
  
  


Vengé makes it clear in no uncertain terms that she doesn’t trust Astronema, and Astronema accepts it because she was raised just as much in war.

“I don’t expect you to trust someone brought in by Bane’s Elite,” she says. “I expect you to protect my Apprentices and put me on the battlefield where I’m useful.”

“Apprentices?” Vengé asks, obviously unimpressed. Astronema simply shrugs.

“Their mentors didn’t defect,” she says. “And they’ll need their friends close, for a civil war like this.”

“We have Lords and Masters enough,” Vengé says. Astronema shrugs.

“Not for these kids,” she says. “They were all part of Bane’s program, and most of their Masters are Elite.”

Vengé seems to get the picture and doesn’t protest any more.

  
  
  


“…Astronema?” Astronema whips around, as she exits her Apprentices' room. She softens immediately, when she sees who’s there.

“Cassie,” she breathes. “You’re here.”

Lady Cazriara, one of Astronema’s closest friends, smiles.

“And so are you,” she says. “I’m so glad.”

“Are Volune and Ariil here?” Astronema asks. Cazriara nods.

“We’re rooming together,” she says. “If you want… we have an open bed.”

Astronema smiles.

“That’d be great,” she says, then “I… I missed you.”

Cazriara sighs.

“I missed you, too,” she says.

  
  
  


“Is it rude to say that I can’t trust you?” Volune asks, while Cazriara and Ariil run off to change her room assignment. Astronema shrugs.

“Not really,” she says. “Neither does Cassie.”

“Ariil does,” Volune says. Astronema shrugs.

“Ariil signed up for the Sith at age 16 to avenge his fallen brother,” she says. “We were all children of Bane’s Plan.”

“You didn’t come with us,” Volune pointed out.

Astronema shrugs.

“I couldn’t leave without Ecliptor,” she says. Then, laughing, she adds “But he wanted me to.”

“Remember when life wasn’t war?” Volune asks. Astronema only continues laughing, bitterly.

“Not really,” she says. “But I’d kill to.”

  
  
  


“Reckless, both of you!” Astronema yells, glaring at Amara and Rosea. “When you’re on a mission, you put your personal feelings aside!”

Amara scoffs.

“Like you do with Lady Cazriara and Lord Volune?” She asks.

“On missions, yes,” Astronema says, crossing her arms. “You don’t get to go on those missions.”

Rosea growls.

“I’m sure  _ I _ could,” she says. “It’s Amara here who’s holding me back!”

“Oh  _ I’m  _ holding  _ you _ back?” Amara growls. “That’s rich, when you would be dead without me!”

“I don’t need your help!” Rosea cries.

…Oh. There it is.

Astronema sighs and settles into playing mind healer for two teenage girls.

  
  
  


Amara did make one good point, though. She works just as well as ever with her friends, on the battlefield, but… she’s been avoiding talking with them since that first day.

She needs to change that.

And, well… all things considered, the conversation it’s Volune is surprisingly easy.

Volune was always good at secrets therefore surprisingly quick to forgive.

Cazriara, Cassie… wasn’t.

“Why didn’t you come with us, on the day of the Schism?” She asks. “And don’t give me any of that crap about Master Ecliptor because you left without him.”

Astronema sighs.

“Well… that was my reason to stay,” she says. “But he gave me an equal reason to leave.”

“And what was that?” Cazriara asks. Astronema smiles, tucking her current black wig behind her ear, nervously.

“You,” she admits. “And Volune and Ariil, of course, but… mostly you.”

Cassie blinks.

“Oh,” she says. With a sigh, she adds, “I missed you more than I can say, Astronema.”

“Oh,” Astronema replies.

  
  
  


Casriara and Volune come back from a mission with unfamiliar humans and a new blue ship. A former Jedi, his wife, and their close friend, apparently, and there’s some secret behind their eyes as they drag Astronema to meet them.

“Alright, guys,” she says, laughing. “What is this about?”

“You’ll see,” Casriara says, smirking. Astronema follows onto the ship, into a lounging room area, and there’s…

“Karone?”

It can’t be. But the man with the striped hair looks so perfectly familiar…

“Andros?”

  
  
  


Fate finds its way, and the Jedi still raze the Empire, Bane’s Line still raze most of the survivors, especially those connected to the True Sith.

But Astronema survives. As do her Apprentices, and her friends.

“We have no choice but to scatter and hide,” Darth Vengé says, pain evident in her voice. She had been less lucky, they all had been, when Vengé’s Master,  _ all _ of the True Sith’s leader, had fallen to Bane.

And then, to Astronema’s surprise, Ariil stands up.

“Not necessarily,” he says. “There’s a planet I found, with only a small human colony, who would welcome our remaining resources… well, at least for the human among us.”

Vengé nods.

“It’s something,” she says. “Maybe the True Sith can rise again, someday. For now, however, we must preserve our remaining history.”

She holds out a handful of holocrons.

“Everything distinct to yourself or your line,” she says. “Record it.”

  
  
  


“So how does it feel to be the new queen of Naboo?” Karone’s new handmaiden, Maya, asks. Karone smiles.

“Surprising, still,” she says. “I was nominated by my family, after all.”

Maya smiles.

“But you gave it your all,” she says. “Though, I must ask… why all the fancy makeup?”

Karone Astronema, third elected Monarch of Naboo, merely smiles. She thinks about arriving here to find that Ariil, now Leo once more, had found not only a mostly uncolonized mid Rim planet, but his brother alive and well. She thinks about Rosea, now Nokrea again, and Axe, who became Bounty Hunters just to not stand out and Volune, again Carlos, stepping in as their new mentor with the skills he has no right to have. About Cassie’s bright pink clothes made to hide…

“To hide my golden eyes, of course,” she says.

And she smiles.

(And everyone forgets.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
